Countdown to the 10 Things

We've been hard at work at MPOW to adapt our own version of the Learning 2.0 program. That version is called 10 Things @ SPL, and we are almost ready for blast off! There has been a bit of anticipatory angst on my part, but now I'm really getting excited. We've been having 10 Things sneak-peeks this week and staff is really psyching up to do this. We've already had 13 people sign up to participate. The program doesn't even start until next week!

This blog will probably see some cosmetic changes over the next few weeks. Though I won't be going through all of the Things, I will be posting more regularly to this blog and demonstrating some of the tools we'll be using.

Regime change begins at home.

This week I set up camp in our staff meeting room to listen in on the SirsiDynix Institute webcast from David Lee King and Thad Hartman (Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library), "Creating a 2.0 Library." When I first registered for the webcast, I sent an email along to other folks in the Library who I thought would be interested. Imagine my joy when I was joined by 9 of my co-workers, including Department Heads and our Assistant Director! I thought I'd be all alone in the room, and here I was, joined by 9 people who are open to listening, who want to make change, and who understand the forward direction we need to go. I was so impressed!

I had to skip off immediately at the end of the webcast so I could staff the Movies & Music desk. As I sought out loungey latin dance CDs for a patron, my colleagues discussed ways to bring some of TSCPL's ideas to Skokie. I find it heartening that at the end of the webcast, those in attendance did not immediately crawl into the cozy, safe place under their desks. Mommy help!

For those of you who were not able to attend, SirsiDynix Institute has already posted it to their presentation archives.

Out from under the radar

Uh oh, we've been spotted! Jenny over at The Shifted Librarian (and also the organizer of the awesome gaming program recently attended) gave The Flying Keyboard and Ruth's blog, The Utopian Library, a shout-out for blogging the Symposium. Though Ruth and I blogged many of the same sessions, she picked up many more of the details than I did and went through the tedious work of linking to everything relevant. Anyway, thanks for lifting us from obscurity, Jenny :) Now I have to be much more diligent in my duties.

In other news, I have finished HP7 at last. Spoiler embargo has been lifted!

What I'm Reading...

I'm nearly done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and as such I'm still in the No Spoilers Camp. I'm impressed with it so far. The action is keeping me on the edge of my seat and I wonder how J.K. Rowling could have gotten any sleep at all while writing this book.

Besides this tome and the other 4 books I'm concurrently reading, I read many library blogs (28 of them at last count) via my feed reader of choice, Bloglines. By subscribing to all of these blogs through Bloglines, I save myself the hassle of going to 28 different websites every day. Instead, I make one stop at Bloglines and I can scan all of the new stuff and decide whether it's worth reading. Some of the blogs that I find perpetually worthwhile are:

• Library Revolution: Emily posts about library technology, Library 2.0, and primarily, customer service in libraries. She has an eye for all of those hilariously awful things we do in libraries to make things easier for ourselves and inconvenience our users. Sometimes I read Library Revolution and have to hit my head against the nearest solid object. Why do we have to make things so difficult? For an idea of what I'm talking about, check this out.
  
• DavidLeeKing: David was one of my favorite presenters at the Computers in Libraries conference Ruth and I attended in April 2007. He blogs about library websites, emerging technology, and change. And even though I primarily read his blog through an RSS reader, I sometimes like to drop by his site to see new photos and videos that he's added to his widgets. The dude can rock a dulcimer.
• LibrarianInBlack: Sarah's blog has the honor of being one of the first librarian blogs that I started reading way back in 2004. LiB has survived many, many feed reader weedings. (That's hard to say...feed reader weedings...read weeder feedings...weed feader reedings!). A "tech librarian by default", Sarah's always got something good to say about useful web apps and tech training. In fact, she recently wrote an issue of ALA TechSource Reports on Technology Competencies for Library Staff.
  

So let's just pretend I don't have enough to read already. Recommend me more useful librarian blogs, please!

Gaming Symposium Wrap Up

Finishing up my conference blogging with some final thoughts. Liz Lawley's closing keynote, "Games without Borders: Gaming Beyond Consoles and Screens," though threatened to be overtaken by Vista and the projector not playing nicely, was a fitting end to an exciting event. What stuck with me most was her appeal to all of us to use our librarian evaluation skills to create selection tools to be used to recommend the best games. When we think about our own collection development standards in the library, those are the same issues faced by parents as they ask "What games are best for the child/teen/adult in my life?" Any libraries out there building selection tools for videogames yet?

As we are build up our gaming groups, we need to document all of the successes--pictures, anecdotes, and stories--so that the adult community can better understand what the tangible benefits of gaming are, and to make sense of their childrens' lives, and to gain support for this type of programming in the library. It would be really fun to have a non-librariany Gaming & Learning workshop for our own community. Having expert speakers present on the positives of gaming AND offering a non-threatening environment in which we're encouraging adults to play--this could go far in getting buy-in from those folks who keep our doors open.

Gaming for Adults @ PLCMC

Martin House and Mark Engelbrecht from the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County shared information about their awesome undertaking to provide gaming programs for adults at PLCMC and its branches.

The Library applied for, and received, an LSTA grant to buy equipment and do a research study to answer the question "Does gaming bring adults into the library?"

With the grant money, PLCMC purchased:

• 12 Alienware laptops for LAN play
• Call of Duty 2
• Need for Speed
• Age of Empires
• Madden 07

• $2000 worth of board games

How are they doing it?

• Events at 3 different locations
• 2 in urban low-income neighborhoods, 1 in urban affluent neighborhood
• events held once a month and rotated around branches
  

Promotion: do not rely on web as sole method of advertising, use sandwich board, flyers at local businesses, partner with local businesses such as comic book stores or game stores. They also recommend having a small printing budget for printing color flyers

Resistance: They did get some resistance from staff who thought the money would be better spent on books and other materials. Those who were already sold on gaming had to tout the educational, social learning & interaction, the promotion of the library, and reaching new non-traditional library patrons.
Some staff slowly saw value after success, some will never see it.

How to deal?
>encourage staff to attend the events
>point out that an unserved audience is being served

Some results:

• majority of users from low-income areas
• attendees range at 26+ but there's been good representation from 19-25 age group
• younger adults drawn to these events
• did not say that children are not welcome, though publicity says 18+
  

Outcomes:

• increase in approachability
• in person marketing most effective
• social interaction among very different segments of community
  

Hurdles:

• funding (though their LSTA grant covered it for this specific program)
• staffing -- who is going to do setup, who is going to be present at event?
• after hours events
• coordinating equipment between branches
• equipment damage and loss (putting it into annual budget)
• getting staff buy-in
  

Other Considerations:

• securing and transporting laptops
• how long will it take to set everything up?
• for PC gaming > much higher commitment from staff, esp. LAN; updates, machine setup w/ logins, comfort with troubleshooting PCs
• staff have to know how to play the games
• extension cords, powerstrips, optical mice (no wireless), steering wheels for driving games, no headphones [Interestingly, it was said that the headphones inhibited interaction; once they were taken away, the gamers were communicating, trash talking, having more fun!]
  
• Hardware recommendations: 1G RAM (Vista - 2G +RAM), 60-100G HD
• events should be 3-4 hours; otherwise it's not worth the time spent on setup
  

The guys ran out of time at the end, but Martin was nice enough to put his presentation materials on his website. Thanks! I got a lot out of this presentation, especially as I struggle to come up with appropriate ideas for future grant proposals. My brain is full!

Digital Downloads for Gamers

Superinformative Beth Gallaway (or shall I say, Information Goddess?) presented her top choices for downloadable and subscription-based games that can be used in the library. Her slideshow is here for the viewing, making my task of blogging this session so much easier! Additional comments and links follow:



Downloadables:

• Prima Strategy Guides > print on demand service, eGuides in PDF $12.99, full color
• GameTap > subscription service; online arcade of 900+ video games, 8 logins per location, $6.95-9.95 month, Windows only, discounted if you sign up for an entire year at a time
• Comcast Games on Demand > $14.95/month, includes Kids Play version all rated EC (early childhood) or E (everyone)
• PlayFirst > Viacom service for $19.95, download a demo for free (one time fee per game)
• Direct2Drive > game downloads from IGN, titles aimed at traditional gamer audience, ratings E-M ($20-49.99 full price for full version of a game, also offers bargains)
• Shockwave Unlimited > ad-free access to downloadable games from Atom Entertainment ($4.95-9.95/month)
• Overdrive > Beth's not holding her breath, but they say they will be offering arcade games, productivity (like Mavis Beacon Typing), family tree geneology maker and educational type games
• StepMania > DDR for your fingers unless you have a USB pad (opensource, users are creating the dances, adding the songs, PC/Mac versions)
• Snood > puzzle game, shooter game--highly addictive!
  

Games to Bookmark for Children:

• Apple Corps > Mr. Potato Head online, but with different fruit and veg
• Fun Brain > educational site in support of math, science and reading curriculum
• Girls Go Tech > brought to you by the Girl Scouts
• Neopets > highly commercial, raise a virtual pet
• WebKinz > surpassing Neopets in popularity
  

Games to Bookmark for Teens/Adults:

• Darfur is Dying > simulation game about genocide and the purpose of the game keep everyone in your refugee camp alive. This is an example of "games for change", games that have a serious instructional purpose. Note: this is part of mtvU.
  
• Runescape > medieval MMORPG (tie it into learning about medieval period?)
• Kingdom of Loathing > funny, illustrated w/ stick figure characters
• iFiction > 250+ text games, interactive fiction (kind of like a choose your own adventure), tons of reading involved
• Set Game > pattern recognition that enhances math literacy skills
• Education Arcade
• Games for change > Serious Games Initiative, games in education, training, health, politics, government, public policy